The Sound Of Jacqueline Du Pre
Label: WARNER CLASSICS (EMI) Catalog: 5099909197527 Format: CD DU PRE, JACQUELINEThis 4-CD set provides a survey of her greatest recorded performances of concertos, chamber music and solo pieces
CD 1 begins with the legendary 1965 recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto conducted by Sir John Barbirolli. This is followed by the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No.1 and the Schumann Cello Concerto, both given poised and committed performances by du Pré in 1968 with the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
CD 2 opens with du Pré’s spirited interpretation of the Haydn Cello Concerto in C and the first movement of Boccherini’s Cello Concerto in B flat, two masterpieces of the Classical era, with the English Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim. In between is the Cello Concerto in G minor by Matthias Monn, a work that bridges the gap between Baroque and Classical, recorded here with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli. The CD finishes with the Finale from Dvorák’s magnificent Cello Concerto in B minor, one of the towering masterpieces of the cello repertoire, recorded in the USA with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Barenboim.
CD 3 presents du Pré in chamber music, starting with the opening movements from two of Beethoven’s best-known piano trios: the ‘Ghost’ and the ‘Archduke’, with her regular chamber music partners, the violinist Pinchas Zukerman and Daniel Barenboim in the role of pianist. This is followed by the first movement from Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No.5 in D, this time with the pianist Stephen Kovacevich, who was du Pré’s regular piano partner before she met Daniel Barenboim. Next come movements from the Cello Sonatas by Chopin and Franck with Daniel Barenboim, which were the last two works that du Pré recorded in the studio in December 1971. The disc ends with a complete performance of the first of Brahms’s Cello Sonatas, a work that du Pré brings vividly to life, together with her pianist partner and husband, Daniel Barenboim.
In CD 4 we hear Jacqueline du Pré as a consummate solo performer, starting with the famous Suite for Solo Cello No.1 in G by J. S. Bach, originating in a BBC recording from January 1962 at the very beginning of du Pré’s career. Most of the works heard on this CD are relatively short, including the inevitable ‘Swan’ from Saint-Saëns’ ‘Le Carnaval des animaux’ and the beautiful ‘Elégie’ by Fauré, but there are also two substantial works in Beethoven’s elaborate Variations on ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte’ and a deeply felt performance of Bruch’s moving Kol nidrei accompanied at the piano by Gerald Moore. The programme concludes with the ‘Jota’ from Suite populaire espagnole by Manuel de Falla, with John Williams providing a colourful accompaniment on guitar. Jacqueline du Pré brought such searing intensity and radiant joy to her cello playing that her impact endures, despite a career that was radically and tragically curtailed by illness before she turned 30. She was born in Oxford on 26 January 1945 into a middle-class family in which music was important: her mother was a fine pianist and a gifted teacher. Just before her fifth birthday, when she was already showing musical promise, she heard the sound of a cello on the radio and the course of her life was set. She studied at Herbert Walenn’s London Violoncello School and at ten became a pupil of William Pleeth, who had himself studied with Julius Klengel. In 1956 she was awarded the Suggia Gift; in 1959 she gave her first public performance of the Elgar Concerto; in 1960 she won the Queen’s Prize and in 1961 she made a successful London recital début. She studied briefly with Casals in Switzerland, Tortelier in Paris and Rostropovich in Moscow and gradually consolidated her reputation at home. She began recording for EMI in 1962 and by 1965, when her famous disc of the Elgar Concerto was made, she was a star. That year she made her American début and in 1967 she married the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. In July 1971, when she should have been at her peak, she began suffering seriously from a mysterious ailment which had already intermittently affected her playing. Eventually multiple sclerosis was diagnosed and, after a cruel series of remissions and relapses typical of that illness, in 1973 she retired. Gradually her health deteriorated, and she died in London on 19 October 1987. Price: $32.98 |